A royal burial for prized pets.

When ancient Egyptians wanted to express their devotion to certain leaders or gods, they often did so with dead cats. Egyptians produced mummies of cats (and of hawks, ibises, falcons, and other animals) by the millions, particularly during the reign of Pharaoh Amenhotep III (1386-1349 B.C.). The mummies were placed in a tomb as an offering to the gods or as burial companions to a deceased ruler. There are so many animal mummies that archaeologists had assumed that they must have been produced in a rush for funerals. But research results published this fall by chemists at the University of Bristol in England show that the embalmers lavished as much care on the animals as they did on human mummies. The cats and other creatures, which were regarded with great respect by ancient Egyptians, were preserved with the same exotic chemical cocktails used on people, the scientists found. As with human mummies, the animals were eviscerated and carefully wrapped in linen. And as with humans, there was evidence that the animals may have been first coated with fats or oils, with smaller amounts of more exotic and expensive compounds added to this base coat. As the oil dried, it would have hardened, making it better able to keep out water and bacteria. "Our belief is that there was rather more care and attention applied to the animals than previously thought," says Richard P. Evershed, director of the university's Biogeochemistry Research Center. "They are quite nicely prepared."